Last year my lovely wife and I were on a Transatlantic Crossing that failed, due to weather, to go to Northern Ireland, Iceland, and Greenland. We tried again this year on a cruise that went from England to Bergen, Norway, the Shetland Islands, ports in Iceland and Newfoundland. Weather conditions did not allow us to go to the port of Isafjodur in Iceland, but the other ports were wonderful, and we had good weather in the ports as well.

We flew from Dulles, near our home, to Heathrow on the night of September 4. That gave us the fifth, sixth, and seventh in England before the cruise on the eighth. We took the Underground into London, going to Waterloo Station near our hotel. On a scale of one to ten, the location was a ten. We could walk in five minutes or so to the London Eye or across the Westminster Bridge to Big Ben and Parliament and Westminster Abbey. Because of the location, there was a cluster of hotels in that area. We walked down to the Victoria Coach Station and scheduled a long tour on Saturday, the sixth. On Friday, we explored our area of London, including Buckingham Palace, going by New Scotland Yard, Hyde Park, Green Park, St. James Park, etc. There were nearby theaters showing Wicked and Billy Elliot. The Book of Mormon was not very far away, but we did not manage to take advantage due to fatigue. Our tour on the sixth took us to Stratford, the Cots wolds, Bath, and Stonehenge. Obama was at Stonehenge the day before we were. Lovely weather. We took the train from Waterloo Station to Southampton Central Station. We took a short walk from the station to our hotel in Southampton. We explored the core area of the city and had a very good dinner at the hotel. The next day the hotel staff said we could walk to the ship in ten minutes. Actually, it took us a half hour with luggage. I would not recommend it, although the couple walking ahead of us with bigger suitcases, said they were fine once they could actually see the ship.

Embarkation was a breeze and our bags were delivered promptly. We could go to our room right away. It was a portside Caribe Deck Balcony room. One might think we could not use the balcony much, but they was lots of sun and good weather, and we were able to use it a lot. Our room was very comfortable and the steward very friendly and good at his job. Food room service was extremely good and prompt. Read more